My Struggle for Peace: The Diary of Moshe Sharett, 1953–1956 ed. by Neil Caplan and Yaakov Sharett (review)

For many historians of Israel, especially those on the left, Moshe Sharett is portrayed as a character from a kind of tragic romance. He was a leading figure of the Zionist movement before Israel's establishment in 1948 and served as Israel's first foreign minister and second prime minister. His role in Israel's leadership, however, in particular his mostly dovish foreign policy, is largely forgotten.

Moshe Sharett (1894–1965) was born Moshe Shertok in Russian-ruled Ukraine. He emigrated to Ottoman Palestine with his family at the age of 12, later studied law in Ottoman Istanbul, attended the London School of Economics, and, on his return to Palestine worked at the Hebrew Zionist newspaper Davar. In 1933, Chaim Arlosoroff, the head of the political department of the Jewish Agency, was assassinated in Tel Aviv. Sharett, nominated to replace him, was thrust into the forefront of Zionist leadership alongside Chaim Weizmann, later Israel's first president, and David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister. Sharett admired the older Ben-Gurion but developed very different political instincts. In many ways, these diaries are the story of the unraveling of their relationship and, eventually, the undisputed political triumph of Ben-Gurion over Sharett.

As minister of foreign affairs, Sharett was widely recognized as a competent minister and valued member of Israel's po litical elite, devoting himself to pursuing diplomatic relations, arms deals, and negotiating an international agreement regarding the use of the water of the Jordan River. In January 1954 the trajectory of his career was altered when Ben-Gurion (temporarily) resigned from politics, and Sharett was eventually nominated to take his place as prime minister. Surprised and reluctant, he led the country for almost two years, until November 1955, when the Lavon Affair, a series of catastrophically unsuccessful and deeply embarrassing covert Israeli missions in Egypt (of which Sharett was quite unaware), forced his resignation and the return of Ben-Gurion. Sharett retained his position as minister of foreign affairs, where he consistently opposed Ben-Gurion's increasingly uncompromising policies toward a belligerent Egypt. Sharett believed that Ben-Gurion's actions would result in an escalation of violence that was not in Israel's long-term interests. Tired of Sharett's opposition, Ben-Gurion eventually engineered his ouster. Sharett spent the rest of his political career on a diplomatic tour of East Asia, before retiring from public life.

The book under review is an abridged three-volume translation of Sharett's personal diary. The original Hebrew diary was published in eight volumes in 1978, edited by Yaakov Sharett, Moshe's son, who is also one of the editors of the translation. This version covers entries from October 1953 to December 1956. The coeditor and translator is Neil Caplan, a widely published scholar in the field. His translation is fluid and precise. It was wise to abridge the English edition. Any serious scholar of the subject should be able to access the diaries in their original Hebrew, and these nearly two thousand pages are more than enough for researchers who must resort to the English version. (Indeed, the reader sometimes wonders whether a shorter, more manageable translation might not have served a greater purpose than this hefty treatment.) The editors have enhanced this edition by interpolating translations of important documents referred to in the diaries, or otherwise relevant to the subject matter. Frequent footnotes provide background on key personalities and events. The volumes also include two essays: an introduction by the editors, which offers their perspectives on Sharett's life and the history of the diaries themselves, and an article by Caplan about the end of Sharett's career.¹ Also included are a healthy bibliography and extensive indexes. All in all, the translation and production of this diary is a massive piece of work and a significant scholarly achievement.

Sharett's prose is expressive, sometimes even beautiful...